Poster clues

[blackcatatonic]

^ I like the Longboat idea.

New third uniques for all Civs would be amazing...

 

[ScottMcPwn]

Its a good question

Some people have been asking for an improvement of Denmark. Perhaps the Motte&Bailey will be incorporated into Denmark?

Motte and Baileys have nothing to do with the Danes.....

 

[ScottMcPwn]

Ditching that stupid Norwegian Ski Infantry? One can hope. Though if they were going to change Denmark, I'd just assume they drop all pretenses of it being anything other than Vikings. Quick, which one of these is not like the other?

A. Harald Bluetooth
B. Viking Fury
C. Berserker
D. Norwegian Ski Infantry

If you've circled D., you're correct.

Personally, I'd replace D. with a Longboat. Would replace a Trireme and would allow you to sail onto land tiles that border a river. Animation would look weird, but it would be cool, no?

I say they need to remove the Ski Infantry to make room for a Norwegian Civ

 

[Louis XXIV]

In the Archaeologist screenshot, it is clearly also a Portuguese Worker building it in that neighbouring CS.

I wonder, if the Chateau is a French UB, which UU they removed.

I know this sounds odd, but I hope they removed the Musketeer. The French Foreign Legion is more interesting gameplay-wise, comes at a lesser used unit slot (there's too many Muskets that Caroleans are somehow Riflemen), and are frankly cooler.

Either way, this is big news for France, provided it's not an improvement that anyone can build.

 

[Sporally]

I see something from the poster in here, to the south: http://cdn.escapistmagazine.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/464/464280.jpg

Castle with harbour - seems upgraded but from the same era (year 1615 and 1660 in the 2 pictures)..
French UI - Seems french - my bet is +2 but most be built on a specific improvement or +1 and working like the improvement it replaces. If not they will have a definately better UI than Polynesia which only give +1 and needs to be built by the ocean tile.
What is the improvement the archeaologist is standing on? A portugese UI, or a trading post, or..?

The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that this "fortified trading-post" is in fact related to the new trade route concept.

As others pointed out, protecting trade routes effectively with units migth eat up the gains of the respective route (at least to a certain extend).
While my speculation above (regarding how those improvements could work) are not very convincing, I had some new ideas in the meantime.

I feel, that trading units will have at least some defence against raiders. Maybe just as much as workers can defend themself when attacked.
What I can imagine are two possible game mechanics:
- a "traderoute-fortification-improvement" gives a bonus on this defence-ability, when built on a tile that lies on the trade route. This will count to the traderoute itself and will not be dependend on where the caravan unit actually is attacked. Multiple bonuses could very well stack to represent heavily guarded trade routes.
- a "traderoute-fortification-improvement" gives a bonus on this defence-ability, when the trading-unit is in its range (maybe 2 tiles).

I think, if this is not how the pictured building works, we should have something like this...

Indeed!

My best bet is that they are some defensive trading buildings as mentioned. In the PAX video he showed how to set up a sea going trading route. Then he wants to protect it but doesn't follow the ship. I don't see any new command icons for the ships so maybe there's no escort function. With no escort function there must be some other way to protect rather than placing several soldiers / ships along your trading route. That's my rationalisation in this matter...

Ok, if you are going that outlandish, why don't we draw the average - this returns 39 N and 65 E - which is almost exactly the coordinates of Samarkand, the capital of Tamerlane...

Wow! I know some think all those conspiracy theories are stupid, and I myself have an interest in many of these but have found that I usally don't believe in conspiracy theories as many others do - believe me, it's true
However, we know they are hiding something in this poster - they've said that directly. And please do the math - I know you can make math out of many things, but 46 civs (or how many we have now) and you pick 3. Like winning a small prize in the lottery that they all would be on the same longitude. I am a believer

Now, what could you make of the 3 units? Why those 3 and are they even the same type (XCOM) all of them?

yeah. i was thinking maybe they could be the same fort improvement with era/civ flavors. or perhaps the forts give tourism boosts after they "turn into castles.":

I will go with range. One hex for the first, two when upgraded. Maybe tourism/culture, but that will probably not happen before a specific era.. I don't believe they used castle for tourism in the old days.

Some people have been asking for an improvement of Denmark. Perhaps the Motte&Bailey will be incorporated into Denmark?

Did the danes ever use Motte & Bailey? But what do I know, I'm just a stupid dane But yes, please remove that norwegian ski infantry. My bet is that they never served in the danish army - it was "inventet" af we lost Norway.

But this leaves some even more interesting questions to me if that's the case - and the first reason I don't think the Motte & Bailey are danish. Are Denmark now implementet in the expansion? Or will the DLCs get an overhaul aswell? They didn't do anything to DLCs after G&K but now they do (no 100HP in scenario when G&K was released).

Could the waterway be a canal?

Personally, I'd replace D. with a Longboat. Would replace a Trireme and would allow you to sail onto land tiles that border a river. Animation would look weird, but it would be cool, no?

I personally hope there will be something else than Vikings to Denmark. Denmark is much more than vikings, though I know we are famous for that. But in general I would hope for a non militaristic UB or UI.

Regaring all this removing the gold from rivers made me think "How realistic is that?" I think there should be a possibility to sail up rivers and even canels, at least for trade units, but I doubt it will happen. If so, they would need to make an exception and let this unit follow the hex border. Anything other would look too silly and make many people unhappy I think. I've always been hoping for some sort of a canal like the Panama Canal that someone could build and own and get taxes from. That would be a great feature of the game!



Anyone wanna talk about the space related sentence at the bottom of the poster?

 

[Dragonflow]

I know this sounds odd, but I hope they removed the Musketeer. The French Foreign Legion is more interesting gameplay-wise, comes at a lesser used unit slot (there's too many Muskets that Caroleans are somehow Riflemen), and are frankly cooler.

Either way, this is big news for France, provided it's not an improvement that anyone can build.

What if both of the UUs are dropped and France gets a Knight replacement?!
But I agree. If one UU has to go then it should be the Musketeer, the era of Absolutism would be covered by the Château anyway.

 

[Gucumatz]

Motte and Baileys have nothing to do with the Danes.....

Apologies then, thought they did

 

[roguesaw]

They did use them. Not the first not the best but there absolutely were motte and baileys in Denmark.

 

[ScottMcPwn]

They did use them. Not the first not the best but there absolutely were motte and baileys in Denmark.

Care to elaborate how having a building that isn't unique to the country at all and is by no means the best is best to be the UB?

 

[ScottMcPwn]

Apologies then, thought they did

Apologies accepted

 

[roguesaw]

Right after you elaborate on where I've made that argument.

 

[ScottMcPwn]

Right after you elaborate on where I've made that argument.

Excuse me?

 

[Louis XXIV]

Castle with harbour - seems upgraded but from the same era (year 1615 and 1660 in the 2 pictures)..
French UI - Seems french - my bet is +2 but most be built on a specific improvement or +1 and working like the improvement it replaces. If not they will have a definately better UI than Polynesia which only give +1 and needs to be built by the ocean tile.

I suspect the Moai will be slightly different now since it gets the +1 gold after flight, which really represents Tourism and would logically be +1 Tourism. However, if not, the Moai still stacks (can't you get up to 3 culture per turn from them?). They also have other bonuses.

I realize there's a significant overlap, but that hopefully helps distinguish them. Certainly better than the East India Company and the Bazaar currently.

 

[Sporally]

I'm pretty sure we'll have some sort of future technologies. Follow the link to this video and get to 5:56 into the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htFD1jlZwyw#.

Brave New World by Huxley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World.

 

[Sporally]

I suspect the Moai will be slightly different now since it gets the +1 gold after flight, which really represents Tourism and would logically be +1 Tourism. However, if not, the Moai still stacks (can't you get up to 3 culture per turn from them?). They also have other bonuses.

I realize there's a significant overlap, but that hopefully helps distinguish them. Certainly better than the East India Company and the Bazaar currently.

Oh yes, that's right. Forgot everything about that. Yes, definately tourism for that. Don't think you can get more culture from them in any way. When I first read about Polynesia I thought you could build the moai statue plus one other improvement - a bit of a dissapointment at first since and often is as important as .

Other bonuses? Yes, for the UA and and other unique (building or unit, can't remember).

 

[Louis XXIV]

It's also worth pointing out that Polynesia will have a leg up on being the host of the World Congress so, even France steals the Moai thunder a little bit, they'll still be balanced overall.

 

[Pikachao]

I suspect the Moai will be slightly different now since it gets the +1 gold after flight, which really represents Tourism and would logically be +1 Tourism. However, if not, the Moai still stacks (can't you get up to 3 culture per turn from them?). They also have other bonuses.

I realize there's a significant overlap, but that hopefully helps distinguish them. Certainly better than the East India Company and the Bazaar currently.

I've gotten moai to give up to 6 culture (i can't remember, but I think I may have gotten one to give 7, but I can't say for sure), so they're definitely more useful than they first seem. it does seem likely they'll change that gold modifier to tourism with the new expansion.

What exactly are chateaus known for in real life? from what I've researched (wikipedia) they seem like fancy summer homes (plus the louvre once was one, apparently) so maybe it'll accent their new UA by boosting however great artists/musicians/writers form by a small amount.

 

[Louis XXIV]

I know them honestly as plantations only more for relaxing and looking beautiful than necessarily doing anything farm-related.

 

[camfrlas]

It's also worth pointing out that Polynesia will have a leg up on being the host of the World Congress so, even France steals the Moai thunder a little bit, they'll still be balanced overall.

is this really so? i read this on this forum quite often, but there is still that Printing press tech you need to have. Polynesia may be first civ to find all other civs, but there might be some other civ to find all other civs second, but bring up Printing press first and Polynesia will host nothing. granted, they have some advantage, but so does every science oriented civ.

 

[Sporally]

I've gotten moai to give up to 6 culture (i can't remember, but I think I may have gotten one to give 7, but I can't say for sure), so they're definitely more useful than they first seem. it does seem likely they'll change that gold modifier to tourism with the new expansion.

How do you get them to make more culture? I always thought they just gave you 1 like forever, and then the +1. Don't recall any techs or social policies giving anything to the moai statue.

is this really so? i read this on this forum quite often, but there is still that Printing press tech you need to have. Polynesia may be first civ to find all other civs, but there might be some other civ to find all other civs second, but bring up Printing press first and Polynesia will host nothing. granted, they have some advantage, but so does every science oriented civ.

That's true, but I think you would most often be longing for the rest of the civs rather than longing for the printing press. The AI doesn't usally spend that much resources on exploring all of the sea.

I've also wonder what happens if two civs with printing press find each other as the last ones. Maybe you need to find their mainland, but if two ships meet in the middel of the ocean and opens an ambassy...??

Another thing. I was wondering if you would get contact to the rest of the civs whenever the WC was build.